10,000 Miles To Mongolia In Your Gran's Runabout: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Image via theadventurists.com

Everyone goes travelling these days. The whole Gap Yah thing has taken over, and many traditional backpacking destinations have become tourist hotspots for lazy Europeans making half-arsed attempts to 'take in the culture' from their 5 star hotels.

So what are your options if you wish to see the world without bumping into pretentious toffs funded by mummy and daddy? This is the question I posed myself last summer. I wanted to do something a bit different after I finished university (before entering the big, scary world of full time work) and stumbled upon The Mongol Rally. A few phone calls and emails later and I had persuaded my friends Jamie, Jack and Mitchell to join me. We are The Mongolaids.

The rally

Image via abandonthecube.com

So what exactly is The Mongol Rally? Traditionally you could probably have referred to it as a 'banger rally', where participants take a crappy car on an epic road trip across a third of the Earth's circumference. Unfortunately, while the Mongolians appreciated the goal to provide aid to local people, they got fed up with clapped out motors breaking down and littering the desert. This led to a rule which only allows cars less than 10 years old into the country.

This resulted in the relaxation of the key Mongol Rally stipulation - that the car must have an engine less than 1-litre in size. The point was to take something wholly inappropriate across deserts, through river crossings and over mountains. The '10 year rule' made this difficult, with very few cars being eligible to participate, resulting in the '1-litre-ish rule' coming into effect.

The spirit of the rally is still intact, however due to increasing changes this is the last year the rally will run in this form, as newer cars are more expensive and too reliable. Which brings us neatly onto...

The car

Say hello to our beautiful steed, a 2006 Chevrolet Kalos. The vital statistics include a 1.2-litre engine that throws out a whopping 72bhp - perfect for traversing the mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan, obviously.

It's a decent enough car, though, and it handles motorway cruising surprisingly well, which is fortunate considering we'll be spending many days on monotonous cross-country schleps. Tarmac is best described as 'sporadic' once we enter Kazakhstan, and while we've yet to test the car's off road abilities, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that it'll struggle on the loose stuff.

It seems to be well put together for the most part, and the guys at Sycamore Cars have kindly offered to put it through its MOT and replace any key components that are due for replacement, as the last thing we want is a belt snapping in the middle of the desert!

The charities

Image via missionmotorsport.org

The whole reason we're doing this ridiculous journey is to raise money for 2 amazing charities. Firstly, our team charity is Mission Motorsport. They work with injured service personnel to aid their recovery, as well as teaching them valuable skills that can help them become employed once they return to civilian life. Their work even goes further than helping those that have lost limbs, as they also aid people that suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. If you wish to donate to this worthy cause, click here. It will be greatly appreciated.

The other charity is Cool Earth. The official rally charity, their aim is to save the rainforests and help to build sustainable communities around them. If you wish to help them click here, the trees will love you for it!

The route

Image via erikmackinnon.com

The Mongol Rally has no set route, simply giving you point A and point B, leaving you to find your own way in whatever time frame suits you. They call this the Un-Route, and it works brilliantly because you can mould your trip to see the countries you want to see and, most importantly, can afford to visit.

We're taking the central route, heading down through Eastern Europe, skirting the Black Sea through Ukraine into Russia, before entering Kazakhstan. From there we'll travel South East towards and through Krygyzstan until we've nearly hit China. At this point we'll travel north through Kazakhstan, keeping the Chinese border to our right, and back into Russia, before dropping into the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and heading on to Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital.

The cost

Image via olyrainforth.blogspot.com

The cost is where things get difficult, as it can vary wildly between teams. The entry fee is £980 per team, the car was £1700, travel insurance was £145, Visas £350 and then a few other bits and bobs.

Then you've got to factor in food and accommodation for the trip, which can be as fancy or low budget as you desire, plus fuel, which can come to around £1000 for the trip. One team told us that fuel cost them as little as £4.50 for a tank in Turkmenistan. All of that means you're going to spend a small fortune for the trip, but I'm pretty sure it'll be totally worth it.

Image via travelandescape.ca

With regard to Visas, these can really affect the cost of the trip. On a tight budget? The northern route through Scandinavia and Russia requires the fewest Visas, whilst the southern route will cost you a bomb. The southern route does take in places like Turkey, Iran and potentially Iraq, so use of the word 'bomb' should thus be used sparingly.

That's all for now, but I'll be updating you from the start line as well as throughout the rally. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, too. Stay tuned!